Change of Heart
by Spike is the BIG BAD
Summary: Season 2 - Angelus defeats Buffy in order to turn her. A spiteful Spike merely watches, washing his hands of Buffy. Will he let her be Angelus' fledgling?


Spike lurked in the shadows as Buffy and Angelus fought.

Angelus punched Buffy in the face. She slammed against a tombstone. As she struggled to gain her feet, Angelus sauntered over, laughing. "Really Buff, this is not your best work. You wouldn't be … holding back on me, are you?"

She got vertical, gritting her teeth against the knot of pain where she had hit the grave marker. Her chin jut forward stubbornly. "I'm just warming up."

She shot a fist at Angelus' nose, but he dodged and spun a kick that sank into Buffy's short ribs and dropped her with a thud that coincided with the gasp that escaped her diaphragm. Stunned, her lips worked in vain to gain some oxygen.

"That hurt you, Buff. You can't deny that. In fact, you really can't, 'cause you have no air, do you?" He kicked her. Buffy rolled over, seeing stars. Her slayer's constitution prevailed, and with a quick roll and a knip-up she was back in fighting attitude, hissing in a small breath as her insides recovered.

"What hurts … is being forced to look at you, Angelus," she hissed. You're a - a husk, a disgusting … relic of what I used to care for. You're using my boyfriend's body, and _that's _what hurts."

Angelus dropped his hands and turned slyly away. then he threw a lightning side kick that Buffy deflected. Turning her defensive move into a spin, she swept his legs, and he crashed onto his back.

He immediately hopped up. "Your _boyfriend_? Some grownup should tell you, you little baby girl, you're not supposed to play with vampires! I wasn't your boyfriend, stupid. You were my dinner. And the dinner bell's clanking. You're just pathetic."

Leaning in toward her, Angelus' face changed to a confiding expression. "But let's not forget I wanted to get into your pants, too. Now wasn't _that _a tough battle?"

In a blink he snatched Buffy's hair and he pushed her head down, toward the ground. Unresisting, Buffy dropped forward onto her hands and reverse kicked Angelus on the top of his head. He loosed his grip as Buffy followed through with the other foot to his nose. The small crack was just audible to the slayer, yet was a thundering break to Angelus. He dropped onto his back and Buffy slammed a downward kick to his groin. A guttural moan tore from his throat and he recoiled into a fetal self-hug.

"Yeah, _I'm _pathetic," Buffy mocked, and she stomped his head. Doing a gaining spin she lifted her foot for another head strike. Angelus' vampire constitution kicked in, and he rose from the ground without any supporting lift, as though he were on wires. Grabbing Buffy's face in his hands, buried his face in her neck. Outraged and in terror, Buffy hammered Angelus' sides with her fists. She threw her forearms against his chest to break his grip, but her strength was ebbing quickly. A not unpleasant lightness came over her, and the world tipped and rolled in her vision. The typical complacent resignation of a vampire victim eased her muscles and she flopped helplessly in Angelus' grip. The flow of blood from her artery into the vampire's mouth was a natural certainty, and she was fine with it. It was solace.

As from far away she felt her body float to the ground. Slitting her eyes, she saw Angelus, sweet Angelus - her mind recoiled. That _bastard_ Angelus was thrown down. Buffy tried to move, but everything except her eyes was paralyzed. Angelus was in eyeshot again, teeth bared in combat. A pair of flashing arms garbed in black leather struck and thudded against him. As oily blackness closed in, Buffy saw the angry, vengeful visage of Spike.

Spike had watched their battle with amusement. That turned quickly to concern for her, bringing him self-loathing. When Angelus' teeth tore into Buffy's neck something within him exploded.

Suddenly Angelus was ass over teakettle, and Spike found himself looming furiously over him, fingers working with the irrepressible desire to tear him apart.

Angelus rose and snarled, "What do you think you're doing, boy?"

"Stay away from her."

"She's mine boy. _You_ stay away."

A dead calm relaxed Spike, a deadly, icy calm. He smiled mockingly. "I'm happy to fight you, thou _Grand_ Sire. You can take me easy, I'm just your little fledgling."

Slowly, Spike moved toward Angelus, his muscles filled with the vampire version of adrenaline.

Angelus took a step back, sensing the overwhelming power of Spike's initiative. Then the slayer blood he had consumed surged in him, and he stepped toward Spike. He felt as though his body were swelling, growing.

He barked a humorless laugh. "You really believe you can beat me. Don't you?"

Spike felt the power before him. He felt greater determination.

Angelus' fist hit Spike and he spun back. Kicking off a tree he scissored a kick at Angelus, who ducked. He countered with a foot sweep, and Spike hopped it, tossing a side kick that smacked against Angelus' broken nose.

"That the best you can do, Poofer?" Spike sneered.

Angelus roared and flew at him. Spike evaded and drove a left hook into Angelus' face, then a left crescent kick. He swept his feet and as his sire dropped, he snatched his ankles. Howling in disbelief, Angelus struggled as Spike spun him around several times, gaining speed. Angelus expected to be thrown against a grave stone, and he bunched forward to absorb the impact. Instead of throwing him Spike lifted him, and at the apex of a blindingly fast turn, slammed Angelus' skull into the bough of a tree. Angelus saw a shattering light blind his eyes. Swinging again, Spike brought the limp Angelus over in an arc that smashed his head on a tombstone. He dropped him and leapt onto his nemesis, pounding his head with both fists. Black and gooey blood sloshed like syrup from the older vampire's head, and Spike shouted unintelligibly in a froth of rage.

Buffy made a noise behind him, and Spike turned his eyes toward her. Her color was alarmingly pale. Even a slayer would have trouble surviving the attack from Angelus. Before a thought motivated Spike he found himself carrying her away like a baby. His feet were moving in the direction of the woods.

What can you do there? he asked, and his internal voice commanded silence. An unbidden image of him feeding Buffy his own blood shocked him. He would use his razor like nail to claw a wound across his chest - across his _heart_. Spike's lips tightened with joy at the mental picture. He began a triumphant laugh. Instead he sobbed, then began crying tearlessly.

They were on the edge of the woods, at the beckoning haven of the trees. He bit his lower lip to quiet the unaccustomed weeping. His teeth pierced the lip, and the small bite of pain reassured him. Another step brought him into the tree line, but in the darkness his vampire eyes saw his quarry with perfect detail.

"Buffy, I-"

There was no need to go any further, she was his for the taking.

"You'll die unless I do something, Buffy." Spike clawed open his blood-red shirt. He prodded her awake as he sliced through his flesh. In his imagination, he saw Buffy, eternally beautiful, locked into her current age. Always youthful, always beside him for all time and forever. The former slayer, hunting with him. Buffy, feeding with him. Loving him, sleeping by day.

"What happened?"

"Maniac. Bit her neck and sucked her blood," Spike explained hurriedly to the ER nurse. "She needs a transfusion."

The nurse regarded him suspiciously as the trauma team took Buffy away on a gurney. "The police will want to speak with you, so stay here. And I have some paperwork-" she moved her eyes off Spike for a second, then turned back to find him gone.

Outside, Spike watched the ER entrance for a while, knowing there was nothing to see. Nothing he could do. He walked away heavily, sighing. He had to find a dark and safe place soon, before morning. He remembered Angelus and smiled in satisfaction. If Angelus weren't dead already, he would be at first light. He had left his head cracked in two.

He was Spike, and Spike he was, a vampire with two slayers on his skein, and now - Angelus. The great Angelus was his latest kill, and he accomplished it against the real deal, not a vampire with soul on a morality jag.


End file.
